Note 158 — THE BEST PORTRAITS IN ENGRAVING.

Something in this success is doubtless due to Le Brun, whom Nanteuil translated,—especially as an earlier portrait of Pomponne by him is little regarded. But it is the engraver, and not the painter, that is praised,—thus showing the part which his art may perform.

There is much in this portrait, especially in the eyes, to suggest the late Sir Frederick Bruce, British Minister at Washington, who, when a youth in the diplomatic suite of Lord Ashburton, was called by Mr. Choate “the Corinthian part of the British Legation.”